I am a scholar, author, and global citizen critic researching, writing, organizing, and teaching. I am interested in social implications of racialized violence and discourses of terrorism, both domestically and sometimes as part of the global, decades long US-led war on terror both within the United States and abroad. I engage work about circulations of violence and race in public discourse, film, and militarized & carceral spaces throughout the world.

I am currently appointed as an Assistant Professor of the Department of Rhetoric and teach in the Program in Race and Ethnic Studies at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, USA. My first book, Violent Subjects and Rhetorical Cartography in the Age of the Terror Wars (Palgrave Macmillan UK) dropped in 2016. I have presented work across the US, Middle East, and Europe to various audiences both in academic spaces and outside of the university. I have also been lucky enough in my career so far to teach at institutions ranging from a small liberal arts college to a large public high school and many spaces in between. I serve as an Associate Editor in Chief for Citizen Critics (www.citizencritics.org), where I also publish work from time to time.

I love poetic aesthetics. I’m a cinephile who pens the occasional film/television review. I’m a vocal fighter for all things that I hope can make participatory democracy more just for everyone. I am a spaghetti enthusiast.

“Democracy will be a farce unless individuals are trained to think for themselves, to judge independently, to be critical, to be able to detect subtle propaganda and the motives which inspire it.” — John Dewey, “American Education Past and Future,” 1931

I part of an exciting new project, working as an Associate Editor with the Citizen Critics collective. I can also be found there as a writer and as the lead desk editor for Terrorism and Middle East policy. Our mission statement is as follows:

"We are the citizen critics collective. Citizen Critics is a nonpartisan, independent analysis space that promotes critical analysis and discussion of politics and other matters of the public good with a focus on language use, misuse, and abuse. We write and promote work from the academic community and from experts in the myriad desks from which we publish for a broad, global audience. Citizen Critics is a not-for-profit collaboration; the small team of editors works with scholars and experts in various fields across the world to craft pieces that appeal to a wide audience. We use our reason in public. Our goal is to provide rigorous but accessible analysis that holds public figures accountable for their discourse and policies."

We launched on Inauguration Day, 2017 and would love new readers! We also are looking for writers who are working on critical analysis of political discourse. Contact information can be found on the website.

Find us at www.citizencritics.org. My writing for the site can be found below. And, scroll down to find our social media feeds so you can stay plugged into the work of the collective!

Critics Chat: Democratic Identity and the 2018 Midterms

It’s Not Just Violent Rhetoric, It’s the Power of Rhetorical Violence We Should Be Worried About

October 31, 2018

Post 9/11 Terror Discourse Boomerangs Home

August 4, 2017

A Complicated Understanding of Friendship: The Discourse of U.N. Resolution 2334

January 20, 2017

Thanks for reading!

Scroll down to read our most recent twitter feed and to find links to our twitter and Facebook pages. Please, follow and like us on all our social media platforms so you, and others, can find our work! And, visit our site: www.citizencritics.org. We look forward to welcoming you to a future Citizen Critics publication space!